The inscription on the frontispiece is: To the true original of all things.

Inscription on the first column:-He is infinitely good, and infinitely just ;-He gives light to, he supports, he rules all things with supreme authority, and with sovereign justice.

Inscription on the second column:-He had no beginning, and shall have no end;-He has produced all things from the beginning It is he that governs them, and is their true Lord.

SIR,

THE publication of the Catholic Magazine has given an opportunity to every friend of religious freedom of rebutting the attacks which are so frequently made against it, and chiefly of repelling the assaults and obloquies which are daily thrown out by the advocates of intolerance. Among these assaults, there is one on the fruits of which our adversaries very much rely; namely, that of persecution, whenever the question of Emancipation is introduced, these able and doughty champions immediately narrate the cruelties which disgraced the reign of Queen Mary of England, and accompany it with an exaggerated account of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Although, sir, not much skilled in religious controversy, I beg leave to inform these eloquent disputants in favour of bigotry, that if they consult the chronicles of the reigns of Elizabeth and James, they will find that as many persons were executed for their religion under that Princess, and "most high and mighty Prince" as there were during the reign of Mary. Even that great reformer, the illustrious and revered Father Calvin, swayed by the most malignant and cruel artifice, burnt Servetus for maintaining the Socinian heresy. On these topics, I would recommend to the candid Protestant the perusal of Nightingale's History of Catholicism.

With an ardent wish for the furtherance of religious liberty, I beg leave to subscribe myself, your's, &c.

Nov. 13th, 1812.

M. PT.

To the above instance of cruelty may be added that of the famed Abp. Cranmer. A poor woman was condemned to be burnt in the reign of Edward VI. for her religious opinious. The pious young

NO. VI.

Vidé the authorized English Version in the Dedication.
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monarch reasoned with the archbishop upon the impropriety of Protestants resorting to that cruel mean of which they accused the Catholics; adding humanely, "What! would you have me send her quick to the devil in her error?" The prelate however was inflexible, and the king signed the death-warrant with tears in his eyes. The unfortunate suffered with heroic firmness, and the bishop's bigotry was justly execrated. EDITOR.

THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS.

MR. EDITOR,

WILL you give a small space to a constant reader to extract a few words from "An Appeal against the Roman Catholic Claims 2" "We are told that the Protestants have no objection to accede to the demands of the Roman Catholics. Such an assertion ought to excite one general contradiction from every class of Protes tants, whether belonging to, or dissenting from the Established Church. It ought to be contradicted from the pulpit of every Protestant Church, Chapel, and Meeting-house, in the United Kingdom. The Clergyman who silently submits to such an assertion, is a partaker in it, and unworthy of the sacred garb which covers such criminal indifference:-and the Layman who, against his better judgment, even passively assents to the libel, is a traitor to his country, and possibly to his own soul! We must no longer plead ignorance, the record of history belies the plea. The trumpet of alarm has been sounded, by good and distinguished characters in and out of the Church-the Dissenters are no longer blind to their spiritual and temporal interests being at stake in our present decision."

The same "Appeal" also strongly calls the public attention to "The Declaration and Protestation of the Roman Catholics of England; with the names of the Bishops, Peers, about 200 Clergy, and almost every respectable Catholic in England who signed it; and the Proceedings and Correspondence of their Committees and Bishops."-For God's sake, Mr. Editor, do all in your power to give the Catholic document every publicity. Its value to the Protestant cause can only be measured by the anger it excites in our opponents. We could well permit the whole question to be tried by this one publication, and rise or fall by the result.

A PROTESTAnt Dissenter,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CATHOLIC MAGazine.
SIR,

TO your querist, whether bad money fairly taken may be conscientiously passed again, I should reply in the affirmative.Money is not like any other private security, in which the indivi dual must have a knowledge of the party with whom he deals.-It is a public medium of transacting business, and, like bank notes, not always within the discrimination of the receiver to know if it be genuine. Where the party can be traced, there is remedy by law; and it is only in cases where the party giving cannot be traced, that it may be irreproachably passed.-This is certainly, meting out the same measure that we receive. If such base coin were to be suppressed by the parties who may accidentally receive it, and no further issue of such coin took place, this would very much answer the end of the coiner, who would forge as fast as the conscientious public would give full value for the base metal, and take the loss on themselves. The argument, that if a man be robbed, he may rob again, will not apply; the innocently receiving of bad money is a fair transaction, that of retaliation in an illegal form cannot be so. In the one case the law will prosecute, in the other case it may fix the loss on the party, but cannot criminate.— Prosecution is inflicted against the utterers of base coin, but the passing it for the same value given for it, is not a transaction of interest or collusion. The most delicate feeling need not be alarmed, I conceive, at doing as it is done by; nor are the hands unclean which should pass what they receive.-Indeed, I knew a religious methodistical lady who selected her bad money, taken in the shop, to distribute among those who wanted change; and those who were least particular, generally had the largest share:-which premeditated disposal of it gave her conscience no uneasiness. Yours, Y. Y

ANECDOTES.

CATHOLIC BENEVOLENCE.

ONE of the military who attended the dangerous passage of the Mountain of St. Bernard, previous to the battle of Marengo, as if inspired by the subject, observed, "that the troops, after five hours of fatiguing march, gained the summit of St.

Bernard, where the virtuous Cenobites, renouncing the beauties of nature to dwell amidst barren rocks and eternal snows, and devoting themselves to the service of religion and humanity, gratuitously entertain all travellers. It was upon the summit of this mountain, which separates Italy and Switzerland, that we found a table spread, as it were, in the wilderness. Here every man received a glass of wine, and other nourishment; and the distri bution was undertaken by one of the pious inhabitants of the place. Sublime religion! thy practice makes the hero, and thy neglect the monster!—Wretched indeed are those who only en deavour to expose thy weakness.

ORIGIN OF THE FREE-THINKING CHRISTIANS.

THIS new sect, who have lately had a licensed place for their wild declamations on a Sunday in Jewin-street, near Aldersgatestreet, were originally called Anti Devilists, from their denial of the existence of this being. They were almost all members or attendants, at first, at the Chapel of the Originists, or Universalians, in Parliament-court, Bishopsgate-street, from whence their founders seceded, and for a short time, till prevented by the magistrates, disseminated their doctrines in the fields about this metropolis. They afterwards hired a dancing-room in the city, where they declaimed in the morning, and drank tea publicly in the afternoon; strangers being admitted, paying 3d. per head. But this opportunity for gossipping and making converts, not answering the purpose, it was dropped. They next figured away at a tavern in Cateaton-street, where, being found to be irregular, they applied for preaching licences for six of the best gifted brethren; since which they have built themselves a kind of amphitheatre near Jewin-street, where they indiscriminately condemn all but themselves, whether Catholics or Protestants; and are extremely fond of exciting a laugh among their hearers. This conduct, and the general want of solemnity, gave the lower order at the door so much liberty, especially under the cover of evening, that they were at length obliged to get rid of what they called the evening business altogether, meeting since in the forenoon only. One of their principal leaders, though he strongly denies the existence of separate beings, has derived considerable benefit, in his temporal affairs, in consequence of his dealing with spirits.

METHODISTICAL INDEX EXPURGATORIUS.

MOST people have acknowledged, and were in the habit of acknowledging, that the Whole Duty of Man, published about the latter end of the reign of Charles I., was one of the best books of practical piety and morality ever written by a Protestant.-As such, it maintained its ground till within the last sixty years, when this, with Archbishop Tillotson's Sermons, had the ill fortune to be stigmatized by the late George Whitfield, of fanatical memory, as one of the most pernicious books imaginable, not having a word in it about free grace and salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; but merely recommending and encouraging good works. Still, as the book continued to be read and inquired after, it naturally gave such offence to the enemies of all good works, that they thought, the only way to prevent the reading of the old, would be, to prepare a New Whole Duty of Man; which was accordingly done; and, as an apology for which, the public were informed, by the puritanical editors, that the former being deficient in pointing out the means of salvation by faith alone, and the doctrines of free grace, with other distinguishing tenets of the Gospel, this popular work had been revised accordingly; and thus being purified from its errors, it was recommended by several ministers of the Gospel, the language also being more accom modated to modern manners, &c. However, as these new evangelists have a kind of natural and inherent aversion to any thing that bears the name of duty, both the old and the new work, which bore this name, it seems, now have nearly disappeared altogether!

INSTANCE OF DANGER AND PRESERVATION.

IN 1396, Mehemed Balba, second son of Juzaf, King of Gre nada, seized upon the crown, in prejudice of his elder brother, and passed his life in one continued round of disasters. His wars with Castille were invariably unsuccessful. His death was occa sioned by a poisoned vest. As soon as he found his case desperate, he dispatched an officer to the fort of Solebrena, to kill his brother Juzaf, lest that prince's party should form any obstacle to his son's succeeding to the crown. The Alcayde found the prince playing at chess with an Alfaqui, or Priest.-Juzaf begged hard for two hours' respite, which was denied him: at last, with great re